Customer service

People tend to associate customer service with a shop or an outlet that offers a one-to-one service for a transaction to be made. However, it is more than just that. Everyone takes part in some form of customer service and transactions need not be concluded.

There are different forms of customer service, such as internal and external. There is also verbal and visual, and non-verbal and non-visual customer service. All are important.

The internal customer is your fellow colleague at work. The way you treat him/her usually reflects how you treat customers. The external customer is the customer who is asking for a service from your company and does not have anything to do with the company.

It is important that people at front office, who usually have a direct link with the customer, are thoroughly trained. It could be that there is a good-natured employee who might have difficulty in expressing himself, or another who is nervous or short tempered.

Not everyone is able to face customers. Circumstances in life can demotivate or frustrate employees when carrying out their duties. Employees should be professional enough not to carry their personal problems to work and vice-versa, but since we are humans, we are subject to making mistakes. Meanwhile, managers in charge of recruiting front office staff should be trained to do so. Appraisers should be skilled in identifying when an employee is no longer up to scratch.

To avoid poor service and brighten up a customer's day, front office staff must maintain a smile, hence 'a service with a smile'. Examples of welcoming customers with a smile could be many, as it could be emphatic when the customer is in an awkward position.

A scenario that comes to mind is a passenger on board a flight who, prior to boarding, is frustrated because of delays or lost luggage. Professional cabin crew, who do not have control over these situations, would apologise for the hardship the passenger is encountering and try to lessen these difficulties.

Studies show that good customer service will enhance business. This is because once you know your customer, the customer will feel free to talk and might give useful ideas. People are also ready to spend a little more money if they get good service. On the contrary, poor customer service is bad publicity. Overcharging is another form of bad customer service.

People tend to be loyal to one brand or organisation even if another could be better. These 'comfort zones', as expressed by Wind (1982), examined and classified customers in respect of whether this theory was correct by listing both positive and negative reasons for them to be loyal or disloyal.

• Current loyal customers who will continue to use product and services;
• Current customers who may switch to another brand;
• Occasional customers who would increase consumption of the brand if the incentive were right;
• Occasional customers who would decrease consumption of the brand if a competitor offered a right incentive;
• Non-users who could become customers;
• Non-users who will never become customers.

It is important for marketers to analyse each individual point and try to build an important client base by seeking strategies of retaining current customers and targeting other potential ones. It could even be cheaper to keep customers satisfied.

Contrary to what many believe, it is essential for customers to air their views about a service provided. It is valuable for any organisation to identify its strengths and weaknesses from a customer's perspective. Customers might see service provided in a different light and customers' expectations vary from one another.

Customers give feedback and it is then up to the organisation to use clear listening skills and adopt what it has learnt from its customers. After all, that is what marketing surveys lead to. This also helps identify needs and businesses and organisations can focus their strategies around this form of free research.

Authors such as Clutterbuck et al (1993) and Cartwright and Green (1997) state that with even the best run organisations, something will, at some time, go wrong. The emphasis on Total Quality Management (TQM) is for everything to be right the first time with the scope of lessening complaints.

Since mistakes are bound to happen, it is customer or service recovery that will be, at that point in time, crucial. This is important, especially if one bears in mind that the 'lifetime value of a customer approach is taken'. This should be viewed against the 'lifetime cost' of losing a customer.

The purpose of this article is to help people who are in contact with customers acknowledge that they have an important role that could spell success or disaster to their organisation. Poor service can hinder not only an organisation but also the tourism sector, on which the Maltese economy is dependent. Other organisations in the service industry, such as banks and financial institutions, cannot afford to get a negative reputation, as this will have negative repercussions. Therefore, having good customer service should be part of our culture.

What applies to the services sector applies also to the products sector. If one reads the daily newspapers, one finds letters of complaint and letters of praise by tourists and locals who had positive or negative experiences. These should not go unheeded.

People should be respected and not overcharged; all are customers who want to be treated well. Organisations after a quick buck could be using unethical methods, such as overcharging or hard selling. This will fail in the long term.

Our papers are inundated by other related forms of complaints. A case in point are the time-share people, who tend to 'pester' people. If this is bad publicity, why not train these workers on how to respect tourists' privacy before sending them on the streets.

Different types of customer service

There is visual and non-visual, verbal and non-verbal customer service. The common criteria is the type of communication one uses. All are important. Visual customer service usually goes hand in hand with verbal. One sees the customer and can communicate verbally. Visual customer service can also include non-verbal communication. Body language and attitude can send messages to the recipient, who in turn could interpret a message differently.

Non-visual communication does not necessarily mean non-verbal communication. The only example of this is communication by phone. Since call centres are now becoming commonplace, the stress on verbal communication is important because it counter balances the fact that it is non-visual.

Good communication is important, as there could easily be distortions, such as background noise, line problems, and also expressing oneself. A person who stammers or tends to talk fast could be good for front end visual customer service, but not suitable for telephone conversations. People could empathise with someone with a speech defect once they actually see the individual and can therefore appreciate the effort.

Another form of non-visual and non-verbal customer service is service rendered by e-mail, which has become common practice. For excellent customer service in this area, one needs to have a good command of the language and excellent writing skills. A written note could easily be misinterpreted.

Customer service not only has to do with sales. It's more holistic than that. For a customer to go for a particular enterprise, that enterprise needs to offer something more attractive than its competitors, unless one opts for an enterprise because of tradition.

Building a good rapport with the customer and anticipating what he wants is also very important. In today's world there is a desperate quest for uniqueness. Money is usually not the issue, and it is a mixture of presentation, attitude, product and relation - which all help create a bond with the customer. A little smile and sound knowledge of alternative ways to accommodate a customer can make all the difference.

Consumer behaviour

Experiences and observation show that customers react and behave the way they are treated. Listening without interrupting is one of them.

Consumer behaviour is more on the marketing side of the spectrum. Marketers launch products or do their costings according to how customers behave or tend to buy one product over another.

Analysing social backgrounds and regions also helps. How can a businessman open a garage for expensive cars when people who live in the area are low-income earners? This will be insensitive, if not insulting.

Knowing social backgrounds as well as being aware of the culture of individuals will help businesses as well as customer service. For example, people in the Middle East were in uproar when a renowned food chain presented pork on their menu. This is because they do not eat it for cultural reasons.

Consumer behaviour is important as, at the end of the day, we all want our customers to be content. It is not only important to reduce complaints, but to make customers feel more at ease with us. That is why marketers focus on target and niche marketing.

Emotions shouldn't play a part in the transaction, but it is still important to be sensitive to customer needs. Customer service cannot happen without customers and businesses working together.

David Borda and Kenneth Cutajar are M.Sc graduates in Training and HR Management from the University of Leicester. They have been working in the services industry for the past 15 years.

dborda@onvol.net, kencut@onvol.net